Bold predictions for Round 6

Check out four bold predictions from EuroLeague.net staff members for Round 6 of the 2023-24 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague season.

Mike James will put on a show against Milan

by Geoff Gillingham

Ever since being told by Ettore Messina that he should leave EA7 Emporio Armani Milan in the summer of 2019, Mike James has always tried to remind the Italian coach of just how great a player he is. This Thursday night, the three-time All-EuroLeague guard will face Milan for the eighth time since leaving. Excluding a Round 14 game in the 2021-22 season when he played just 2:42 minutes due to injury, James has averaged 19.8 points, 4.2 rebounds, 8.2 assists and 1.2 steals when playing against his former Italian employer. James has started the 2023-24 season in red-hot form, showing once again that he will be in consideration for the EuroLeague MVP prize come next May, and I expect him to play a key role as the 3-2 AS Monaco piles more misery on Messina’s 1-4 Milan.

Sfairopoulos will get his first win with Zvezda

by Frank Lawlor

Ioannis Sfairopoulos has had 10 days and two close losses against the maestro across town, Zeljko Obradovic of Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade, with which to work out how he wants Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade to play and get his charges to buy into that vision. Although his counterpart on Thursday, Pablo Laso of FC Bayern Munich, has had a head start on a similar process, enough time has passed now for Sfairopoulos to put the kind of discipline and positivity in Zvezda's game that he's known for – and to see it start bearing fruit. His rotations in the backcourt with Shabazz Napier, Milos Teodosic, Yago Dos Santos and, if he's available, Nemanja Nedovic, will be key. But Sfairopoulos is well practiced at figuring out what players work best together, and with a home crowd at their back and plenty of incentive not to drop a game at home while the new system takes hold, I see him and Zvezda getting into the win column together on Thursday.

Ibaka will have a monster game in Belgrade

by Javier Gancedo

FC Bayern Munich travels to the Serbian capital to face Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade. It could be a good opportunity for Bayern center Serge Ibaka to show he can still play at a really high level. Ibaka has been seeing limited playing time, around 20 minutes per night, but still manages to lead the 2023-24 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague in blocked shots (2.2 bpg.), also averaging 9.2 points and 7.5 rebounds for a PIR of 12.5. He is the best per-minute rebounder in the competition, averaging 14.9 prorated over 40 minutes. Ibaka posted those numbers without shooting the ball particularly well (56.0% 2FG, 16.7% 3FG, 60.0% FT). He can match Joel Bolomboy's physicality and can also give Mike Tobey and Marko Simonovic a lot of trouble. With added playing time, a fully adjusted Ibaka can be a major problem for all opponents from now on.

ALBA will upset Valencia

by Igor Petrinovic

Valencia Basket is on a high. It shares second place in the standings, having won four of its first five games, including a resounding 15-point victory last week in Kaunas, where it led by as many as 29 points. Over the weekend, Valencia downed FC Barcelona in domestic league action. Through five rounds Valencia's defense has not allowed a team to score more than 77 points. Meanwhile ALBA stunned EA7 Emporio Armani Milan 85-82 last week behind a career-best game from big man Johannes Thiemann and solid performances from other veterans such as Matt Thomas, Louis Olinde and Sterling Brown, who is averaging 16.7 points over the last three games. I see Valencia letting down a little bit after a series of challenging games, which also included clashes against Maccani Playtika Tel Aviv and Anadolu Efes Istanbul in the last 14 days. A confident and pressure-free ALBA is a dangerous visitor and I see the team from the German capital going into Valencia and upsetting the hosts.